Finnish Violin Music

Annemarie Åström · Tiina Karakorpi · Atte Kilpeläinen · Tomas Nuñez-Garcés

2019 · ABCD 410

Credits

Performers: Annemarie Åström — ViolinTiina Karakorpi — PianoAtte Kilpeläinen — ViolaTomas Nuñez-Garcés — CelloKAAÅS-TrioUlla Lampela — Cello
Composers: Helvi LeiviskäErkki MelartinVäinö Raitio

About this release

There are more world premiere recordings on Finnish Violin Music, with violinist Annemarie Åstrom leading performances of virtually unknown works written in the 1920s in the shadow of Sibelius (Alba Records ABCD 410 alba.fi). The three composers here share a connection, Helvi Leiviskä and Väinö Raitio having studied with Erkki Melartin at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
Åstrom is joined by fellow KAAÅS Trio members pianist Tiina Karakorpi and cellist Ulla Lampela in Leiviskä’s Piano Trio, and by violist Atte Kilpeläinen and cellist Tomas Nuñez-Garcés in Melartin’s terrific Trio Op.133. Raitio is represented by the Four Pieces for Violin and Piano Op.18 and Sinivuokko, a late piece from 1943.
These are fine performances of really strong and appealing works that leave you wondering what other real gems are waiting to be rescued from obscurity.
TERRY ROBBINS, the whole note, May 2018, VOL 23 NO.

Tracks

Piano Trio
1.Allegro con fuococomp. Helvi LeiviskäISRC FIABA17002587:31
2.Largo - allegro - largocomp. Helvi LeiviskäISRC FIABA170025910:47
Trio for violin, viola and cello op. 133
3.Andante - allegrocomp. Erkki Melartin (1875-1937)ISRC FIABA17002605:21
4.Andante funebrecomp. Erkki Melartin (1875-1937)ISRC FIABA17002614:24
5.Prestocomp. Erkki Melartin (1875-1937)ISRC FIABA17002622:38
6.Finale - vivacecomp. Erkki Melartin (1875-1937)ISRC FIABA17002634:58
Works for Violin and Piano Op. 18
7.Ballade op. 18:1comp. Väinö Raitio (1891-1945)ISRC FIABA17002644:26
8.Canzonetta op. 18:2comp. Väinö Raitio (1891-1945)ISRC FIABA17002652:48
9.Barcarole op. 18:3comp. Väinö Raitio (1891-1945)ISRC FIABA17002663:40
10.Poème op. 18:4comp. Väinö Raitio (1891-1945)ISRC FIABA17002675:39
11.Sinivuokko (Blue Hepatica)comp. Väinö Raitio (1891-1945)ISRC FIABA17002683:01

Reviews

In partnership with Tilna Karakorpi, Åström turns finally to Väinö Raitio—a harbinger of musical modernism in Finland such as is only intermittently evident in the four pieces published as his Op 18, with their Impressionist harmonies and fervent emotional import.
Gramophone · Richard Whitehouse · March 6, 2018
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These are fine performances of really strong and appealing works that leave you wondering what other real gems are waiting to be rescued from obscurity.
The WholeNote · Terry Robbins · April 25, 2018
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Even so, this is a wonderful release.
American Record Guide · Stephen Estep · June 26, 2018
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These Finnish chamber works show us three stylistic strands abroad in the 1920s (only the brief Blue Hepatica of 1943 was not composed in the 20s): Leiviskä’s conservative late Romanticism (which would make symphony collectors avid to hear one of the threee she wrote!), Melartin’s National Romanticism (meaning there’s a hard-to-describe “Nordic” feel to it), and Raitio’s Modernist-Expressionism (remember his orchestral Fantasia estatica and Fantasia poetica on Ondine 25 years ago?).
Records International · August 7, 2018
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Sibelius dominates the international reputation of Finnish music, but as this disc shows there’s plenty more.